


#13 Time Goes By

by Error403HRD



Series: 1000 Prompts [13]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Immortality, Loneliness, One Shot, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Sad, Self-Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:33:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25421695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Error403HRD/pseuds/Error403HRD
Summary: It was like he had been frozen in time.OrThe woes of a mother.
Relationships: Hanako | Delia Ketchum & Satoshi | Ash Ketchum
Series: 1000 Prompts [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822279
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	#13 Time Goes By

Delia was ashamed to say she didn't notice it until it was brought to her attention.

She didn't notice until her baby sat her down and asked,

"Mom, why haven't I gotten older?"

She looked at her little boy, and it clicked.

He wasn't supposed to be little.

He was thirteen.

But he still looked the same as how he left.

His hair was the exact same length.

His height and weight were the same.

It was like he had been frozen in time.

She denied it at first.

Surely he was just a late bloomer.

Then four years went by.

He was seventeen, but he looked ten.

Delia knew, then, that they had to leave.

They had to cut contact with friends.

She couldn't risk it getting out.

She wasn't risking her baby's safety.

He followed her with minimal complaint.

His knowing and sad eyes as they rushed out with only backpacks with essential supplies broke her heart.

He was being more affected by it than she'd ever know.

It became more apparent in the next few years.

He was twenty.

He was ten.

He was thirty.

He was ten.

He was forty.

He was ten.

It was so hard not to baby him.

His mind was mature.

He'd lived through and solved world ending disasters.

He'd been kidnapped and tortured so often that it was a cake walk for him to escape now.

He'd died and come back countless times.

Yet he was still pure-hearted.

Still so kind.

Still so willing to put his life on the line.

She gave a shaky sigh.

Her hair was grey.

Her face was wrinkled.

Her bones couldn't support her weight.

They'd been forced to be nomads by whatever unnatural force granted her baby immortality.

But he knew she was getting old.

That she couldn't do it anymore.

So he paid for a small house in her name.

Secluded, but close enough to a town so she could visit with little issue.

She could have friends again.

But if Ash was over and they saw him.....

She hated claiming that her son was actually a grandchild.

He only accepted the ruse with a bitter smile.

It had been years since he'd bought her the house.

Nearly a decade....

And yet, Ash was still forced to adventure.

He could never stay in one place too long.

He stopped competing in Pokemon Leagues the same year they fled.

He stopped catching pokemon three years after that.

He only caught them if they had full intent to join him for life, otherwise he'd simply let them accompany him until they decided to leave.

After a certain point, he had to make Professor Oak think he was dead.

He only had about fifteen pokemon now, four of them were elderly.

He kept six pokeballs on his belt, the others were stored in his bag, easily accessible if needed.

The older ones had a hard time protecting themselves. 

They had a hard time doing everything.

Ash was forced to realize that they deserved stability in their last years of life.

He left them with her.

He visited every day, utilizing Teleport.

He still took care of them.

But she kept them company, and they were content with the peaceful days.

Even Pikachu.

He was so old.

He could barely dart over to Ash when he visited anymore.

Ash realized this.

He still smiled.

Delia refused to have a good look at him.

Refused to shatter the thin illusion he put up.

She hadn't for over a decade.

She feared for him.

The last time she really looked at him.....

She realized that her baby's eyes were blank.

That life had been so unendingly cruel to him that he didn't have the spark he used to.

Yet he still put others before himself.

He still helped without being asked.

He still comforted people when they were down.

Ran errands for those who needed him to.

Saved the world.....

Over....

And over...

and over....

He was constantly treated like a child despite knowing more information about how the universe worked than anyone else.

She refused to acknowledge that it was weighing on him.

Refused to acknowledge there was a problem that she couldn't fix.

It was so selfish.....but she couldn't do anything to help.

It was best to ignore it.

She turned her eyes to the darkness outside.

She was so tired.

When she had Ash, she was expecting normality.

To see his first romantic partner.

To see him get married.

To see him have or adopt kids.

To die peacefully, knowing that she raised a happy and fulfilled boy.

But now.....

She cursed whatever force made Ash immortal and no one else.

She cursed them.

Because she knew that Ash would bottle it all inside and keep going.

He wouldn't let himself mourn.

He'd seen people die.

But he always put others before his own wellbeing.

She knew he'd never be happy.

It was impossible.

He'd find friends, but he was seen as too young to date by society.

And he'd see anyone who was deemed "his age" as a child that needed protecting and not a potential partner.

He'd never be old enough to get married.

He'd never be old enough to have children.

Not unless he let some homeless children join him.

But then his secret would be hard to hide.

No, he'd help, but he'd never have another family.

He'd never have friends for more than a year or two.

She wanted so badly to have just gotten an abortion.

Because maybe then she wouldn't have made someone she loved so much suffer until the end of time.

Crying, she closed her eyes.

The next morning, she didn't wake.

**Author's Note:**

> Oof.  
> Sorry Ash.  
> Sorry Delia.


End file.
